The Final Order - A no Leia/Rey Nobody TROS edit by Spence (Completed) — Page 2

I have put together a workprint of this that I wouldn’t mind getting some eyes on.

Some further info:
-This is absolutely nowhere near final, but I’ve got it in a functional place where you can see how it plays out from start to finish. Most of the visual editing is fine, but audio is going to require a lot more work.

• I have yet to replace the opening crawl, because I’m going to end up having someone make it for me as I’m a bit special effects challenged. I want to make sure I get the wording right so I don’t have to ask that person to make a new one multiple times. It will mention that Leia is “ailing” or “struggling with her injuries” in some way to set up her early death scene.

• A few minor special effects shots need to be inserted or improved. The blue crackly lightsaber disappears a few times. Some of the transitions and slow motion need to be iterated on. It’s not major stuff, but it is there and noticeable if you’re looking for it.

• This is heavily based on Ascendent by HAL9000, and the majority of the changes that aren’t specific to Rey Nobody/Leia come from that. Credit is provided to all who worked on that edit via a title card at the end of the credits. There are some small changes that don’t relate to Ascension or Rey Nobody that just fit my preference as an editor, usually regarding pacing or joke placement.

If you’re curious to see it, please reach out to me via DM. I would only ask that if you’re going to watch it, I really would like feedback on how it plays. If you don’t intend to leave feedback, please wait until this is officially done and released to watch it so you can see it the best possible way.

Rey cannot, at every turn, be assisted by other Star Wars characters. She defeats Kylo because Leia intervened. She defeats Palpatine because the spirits of the past Jedi intervened. She’s the hero. She needs to do it herself.

I find this absolutely hilarious given how one of the most common complaints haters never shut up about is Rey being too competent.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Rey cannot, at every turn, be assisted by other Star Wars characters. She defeats Kylo because Leia intervened. She defeats Palpatine because the spirits of the past Jedi intervened. She’s the hero. She needs to do it herself.

I find this absolutely hilarious given how one of the most common complaints haters never shut up about is Rey being too competent.

I mean, I feel like that’s exactly why JJ and Company did that exact thing in The Rise of Backpedaling: Fanboys got upset about her being too OP and not having any sort of familial connections to explain her “power levels”. Then BOOM! She’s a Palpatine and The Ghosts of Jedi Past help her in the end.

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

Rey cannot, at every turn, be assisted by other Star Wars characters. She defeats Kylo because Leia intervened. She defeats Palpatine because the spirits of the past Jedi intervened. She’s the hero. She needs to do it herself.

I find this absolutely hilarious given how one of the most common complaints haters never shut up about is Rey being too competent.

I mean, I feel like that’s exactly why JJ and Company did that exact thing in The Rise of Backpedaling: Fanboys got upset about her being too OP and not having any sort of familial connections to explain her “power levels”. Then BOOM! She’s a Palpatine and The Ghosts of Jedi Past help her in the end.

This is exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to remedy.

I’ve had some absolutely fantastic feedback from the workprint, and I’m making some major changes based on the ideas that were shared. It’s really starting to come together.

SpenceEdit said:

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

Rey cannot, at every turn, be assisted by other Star Wars characters. She defeats Kylo because Leia intervened. She defeats Palpatine because the spirits of the past Jedi intervened. She’s the hero. She needs to do it herself.

I find this absolutely hilarious given how one of the most common complaints haters never shut up about is Rey being too competent.

I mean, I feel like that’s exactly why JJ and Company did that exact thing in The Rise of Backpedaling: Fanboys got upset about her being too OP and not having any sort of familial connections to explain her “power levels”. Then BOOM! She’s a Palpatine and The Ghosts of Jedi Past help her in the end.

This is exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to remedy.

I’ve had some absolutely fantastic feedback from the workprint, and I’m making some major changes based on the ideas that were shared. It’s really starting to come together.

Fantastic news, can’t wait to see it!

So it’s time for an update.

Progress is going well. I was recommended a deleted scene from TLJ with some usable Kylo footage by GMatias. These shots allowed me to have reactions (or lack of reactions) for Kylo during Leia’s death scene where he is not wearing his helmet, which means I now don’t have to cram all of Kylo’s stuff into the first 10 minutes of the movie. It’s a big breakthrough, and really helps fix the pacing early on.

Here’s how it looks now:

https://vimeo.com/690590688

Pacing is now a lot better in the first half, and allows for more flexibility in what I can cut back and forth to.

The Force Bond duel is in much better shape now as well, but I will likely have to do some more audio editing to make the music fit in better. The imporance of the scene is diminished when skipping the flashbacks to Rey’s parents, but I still think it’s turned out well as a fun little action beat, and we get some of Rey’s anger as well.

axlanian graciously played with the audio of the Sith Whispers to make them blend in better and sound more interesting.

https://vimeo.com/690595385

I will say that the workprint I shared is quite outdated now. I want to do a bit more tweaking and then I’ll do another workprint for feedback.

One thing I’m struggling with is now that I’ve gone back to both Luke and Leia’s sabers being blue, there’s two shots near the end that they’re both in together where I’m losing the crackling effect. If anyone who worked on that effect for HAL’s edit would be willing to add it in for those two shots, please reach out to me, I’d be very grateful!

A few more changes I have implemented based on feedback:

• Created Leia’s early death using footage of Kylo Ren from a deleted TLJ scene. His scenes reforming the helmet are now placed more naturally in the story to help the early pacing.

• Removed D-O’s line “sad” when 3PO decides to sacrifice his memories. It’s a nice scene that’s undercut by the joke line.

• Re-inserted the scene where the Falcon is brought back to the Star Destroyer and Palpatine communes with Kylo, since I don’t need the footage from that for Leia’s death anymore.

• Removed the second time Rey mind tricks the stormtroopers. It’s now just the first interaction, followed by “does she do that to us?”

• Added back in Finn and Poe’s argument on Endor. Still trying to make it so Finn says “and so did Leia” as opposed to “and so does Leia”.

• Flipped Kylo’s redemption and Rey with Luke for continuity. She’s on Ach-To for a while, so it doesn’t make sense for him to still be standing in the exact same spot for a whole day. This also puts their “throwing away the saber” moments closer together for impact.

• Palpatine mentions Rey’s “weak” parents, but it’s framed as a dig at her as opposed to him actually knowing them.

• Rey now says “I’m a Jedi” instead of “I am all the Jedi”.

Spence, I haven’t seen your workprint yet (I didn’t ask for it either, as unfortunately I don’t have the time right now to review it appropriately), but only based on what you’ve planed and what you’ve already shown, I am very impressed by your edit.
Especially Leia’s death should work even better with the new changes and the connection to the mask-rebuild.
Thank you for your work!

fidodido said:

Spence, I haven’t seen your workprint yet (I didn’t ask for it either, as unfortunately I don’t have the time right now to review it appropriately), but only based on what you’ve planed and what you’ve already shown, I am very impressed by your edit.
Especially Leia’s death should work even better with the new changes and the connection to the mask-rebuild.
Thank you for your work!

Thanks for that, it’s definitely getting there!

The trickiest thing is making these changes without it feeling to fanedity. I want it to feel like a natural Star Wars film. Maybe still a lesser Star Wars film, but something we might’ve gotten at the theater a few years ago.

I’m a huge fan of The Last Jedi, and I really like Force Awakens, so I want it to feel a part of those films.

Prepping a second workprint now. This one will be in 5.1 surround as I’m getting the mix better.

Let me know if interested. Please provide feedback if you reach out. If you do not intend to provide feedback please wait for the final release.

Thanks!

So I have two effects related things I’m trying to work out on the edit. One is essential, and one would be nice to have. My skillset does not lie in effects creation.

I need a new crawl. I’ve been trying to do it myself but I’m only working with Vegas Pro, and I just can’t get it to look like it’s an original crawl. If anyone has some experience making these and would be willing to put one together, I’d be very appreciative.

The other thing is just an idea I’m tooling around with. Basically, I’m using HAL9000’s edit as a base, which means throughout the film there is a “crackle” effect added to Luke’s lightsaber due to the damage from TLJ. Basically, it looks like Kylo’s saber. It’s really cool, because it also symbolizes the struggle within Rey.

What I’d like to add is when the saber is passed from Rey to Ben at the end, the saber is at first crackling, but then there’s a flash/sound effect and it becomes a steady beam again. Basically, adding impact to the fact that Ben has finally stepped into his role as a Skywalker, and the saber is where it belongs.

Anyone have any ideas as to whether this is possible, or the ability to help me make it look cool?

GMatias said:

Here are some quickie thoughts for the second effect:

Seems like you have two places to make that work: (1) when Ben pulls the saber out before attacking the Knights of Ren, or (2) just before that when Rey and Ben have their mental connection.

(1) The trick with this is you have less footage to work with. For a beat like this it seems like you’d want to focus/zoom in on the saber, but you have about 3/4 of his arc of pulling the saber from behind his back before the shot ends. And without a closer shot of the saber blade, I’m not sure that a flash or bang would work as well as you would like it to.

But I don’t think this idea for this shot is unsalvageable, just that you might need to settle for something a little more subtle. Maybe the saber starts off crackly as Ben pulls it out, but the blade heals/calms over the course of that shot & the following extension of it where Ben does his “OK, you asked for it” shrug.

If I were attempting that, I’d try a simple opacity masking: have the blu-ray footage for those two (or three, if you want to include the quickie interim shot with 3 or 4 frames of blade in it) on one track and lay the identical HAL9000 footage over it. Mask the saber on the HAL9000 footage so that it’s the only thing showing, and then slowly shrink the mask starting from the hilt on out. The tracking should be done for you by using the identical footage.

(2) Same VFX idea as above, but have that effect occur has Rey is holding the saber by her face. The idea being that her connection with Ben is centering/calming her and that’s reflecting in the saber. That might be placing the emphasis more on her than you want, but it has the benefit of enough screentime and screen location to do the effect in a more noticeable & organic manner.

I just tried what you recommended over the shot of Ben, and it’s not really noticeable enough to have the impact I want it to. Maybe I’ll just leave it as is as a more subtle thing.

Appreciate the advise!

A little teaser trailer I made for funsies:

https://vimeo.com/694034238

amobex was kind enough to create an opening crawl for me, as my experiments were getting there but still didn’t feel quite right. He also figured out the “and so does Leia” and was kind enough to allow me to use it. bbghost has also helped me out with some audio work toward the end of the movie.

Otherwise, we are really getting there with this. There’s a few more audio related things I need to clear up throughout, but generally the movie is there. I’m hoping to get this out at the latest May 4th.

If there’s anything specific anybody would like to see a preview clip of, let me know and I’ll share it here.

I’ve had a major breakthrough with the force bond duel. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.

This took hours, and is probably some of the best faneditor work I’ve ever done. Please take a look at the below clip and let me know what you think!

https://vimeo.com/694564040

EddieDean said:

Spence, which elements are you intending to incorporate from Hal’s?

I’m using it as my main source, so most of it. The major things I’m not including that spring to mind, other than my obvious changes, are the sabers are both blue in mine, and no force ghosts.

Totally fell for that clip, my bad 🙈

STF78 said:

Totally fell for that clip, my bad 🙈

shhhhhhh don’t give it away

So, a serious update.

(by the way, the clip a few posts above this one was a fun April Fool’s joke, if you missed it.)

At this point I consider the edit “picture locked”, which in my head means I’ve got it where I want it and will not be making any further major changes. Everything from here on out is just tweaking things and fixing technical problems. I’ve got it in a good place, but some of the audio changes are challenging and require some more attention.

I’ve got some trusted eyes watching it this weekend that will likely find more problems I haven’t noticed, but I watched it from beginning to end yesterday on a big TV with very loud surround sound (my wife was out of the house so I could really crank it) and I’m very happy with how it has turned out.

So TL:DR, this should be released very soon, within the next two weeks or so. I’m very proud of it. I’m grateful for all the assistance and shared ideas that I was able to use. Big shoutout to all the amazing work on Ascendent that HAL9000 and all his contributors put into that edit, as it formed the basis of mine and brought in some incredible moments nobody would’ve thought could even exist.

There will be a big long list of thank you’s at the end of the credits for this one!